Immigrants Line Up For Mexican Id Card

Matricula Card Opens Doors

July 20, 2003|By ELENA GAONA Daily Press

VIRGINIA BEACH — "Jose Javier Resendiz!"

The tan young man grinned while he walked up to collect his new identification card Saturday morning. Resendiz, an 18-year old Mexican immigrant who works raising pigs in North Carolina, scrutinized the card leisurely with two friends.

"We drove an hour for this," Resendiz said. "We're going to have more opportunities now."

Hundreds of Mexican nationals living in Hampton Roads and surrounding communities are trekking in carloads and busloads to Virginia Beach this weekend for a chance to get issued a Mexican consular I.D. card -- a "matricula" card.

There is no local office issuing the cards, and representatives from the Mexican Consular office in Washington, D.C., came down to issue the matriculas to locals who cannot make the trip to the capital. By noon Saturday, nearly 300 people had stopped by from such places as Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg, South Hampton Roads and Richmond in search of an identification card.

Additional applicants are expected today 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Gregory Catholic Church on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach.

The Mexican-issued photo I.D. cards show a person's name, date of birth and U.S. address. The matricula card is growing in popularity among Mexican migrants in the United States who use them to cash checks, enroll their children in school and connect utilities at home.

"I'm going to use it to open a bank account," said Fernando Montes Lara, a 20-year-old Hampton boat yard assistant, "because every time they cash my check they charge me $20. Now I can do it myself, at a bank."

While the cards are barely becoming known in Hampton Roads, they have generated national controversy with lawmakers, city officials, police chiefs and community leaders at odds over the role of the cards among undocumented immigrants.

"This country requires I.D. for everything," said immigrant Maria de la Luz Medina, whose husband is a fisherman in Hampton. "And if you don't have it, all the doors shut on you."

But opponents of the card say the matriculas make it easier for undocumented immigrants to navigate the U.S. system, encouraging illegal immigration. Other critics of the cards fear they might be used by terrorists to live in the U.S. without other documentation. And recently FBI officials said the cards could be faked.

Mexican officials say the card is a form of identification only, however, and has no bearing on a person's immigration status. The cards are issued carefully and given to Mexican nationals as a way to prove their name and U.S. residence, said Juan Antonio Longueira, a representative with the D.C. Mexican Consular office. And the cards have advantages for U.S. citizens, too, he said, by helping public safety officials keep track of immigrants.

"For example, say a Mexican is involved in an accident. The police will know his address, his full name, his age," Longueira said, "instead of just saying 'we don't know who this is or where he came from.'"

Any valid form of identification with an address and correct birthday is helpful to police, said officer Harold Eley, a Newport News police spokesman. But his department has not yet run across the Mexican consular cards, he said.

Localities such as Montgomery County, however, have accepted the card as a form of identification, Longueira said. And local banks are embracing the I.D. cards, said Ericka Weaver, a Bank of America representative from Norfolk.

The bank has accepted the cards as a primary form of identification for at least two years, she said. This weekend, Bank of America set up a table in the same room where Mexican immigrants were receiving their matriculas at the church in Virginia Beach.

The consulate office asked Mexican nationals to bring an original Mexican birth certificate, an official Mexican picture I.D., proof of local residence and $28 to apply for the consular cards.

Mateo Hernandez, 22, had driven to Virginia Beach with his brother and two other friends from Middlesex County for the matricula. His wallet had been stolen a week ago and he has no proof of who he is, he said. The migrant farm worker was denied an I.D. card because he could not prove his Virginia residence, but he did manage to get a conditional Mexican passport issued to him.

The two-hour drive was still worth it, he said. Now he has proof he is Mexican. Like the matricula, the passport proves he is Mexican but does not change his immigration status.

"At least this way if they throw me out," Hernandez said, "they'll send me back to the right country."

- Elena Gaona can be reached at 247-7420 or by e-mail at egaona@dailypress.com

WANT TO GO?

Representatives from the consulate of Mexico will be at St. Gregory Church in Virginia Beach today from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. to accept applications and issue consular cards and passports.